GMG x800: Even Through The Unknown, Our Hearts Are Strong
---- After the announcements of the opening ceremony, the participating teams are transported to a new location that is unknown to them. It appears to be some sort of corridor plagued with stone slabs that stack high above them. A Milky Way blanket paints the sky above the stone walls, as torches illuminate most of the path before them. A booming voice comes over the area to instruct the players. "Welcome to the first day of the Grand Magic Games!" Mato shouts. "You may have noticed that you aren't in the arena anymore. You now find yourself in a maze of traps and trials to test you as a team. Make your way through this labryth and you will earn points for your team! Simple enough right? Just beware, things are bound to happen around every corner!" The mic cuts out and leaves the teams to decide what to do next. ---- Souten looked around in awe. It was amazing to him that without his own knowledge he had been teleported so easily. He couldn't help but smile at the challenge. "No one go running off yet. We've got to come up with a plan." He stated, looking at the four others around him. "First off," Souten started to speak, a surprisingly commanding tone filling the man's usual soft voice. "We've got to remember, this isn't just a walkway full of traps, it's a maze as well. I'm sorry to say that this isn't something we can just charge into, we've got to take into consideration every decision. That means you Sachiel. I know you like to wander, but we can't split up." "Psh, like I'd ever want to split apart from this gorgeous babe." Darius says with a wink and a gesture towards Kendra. "So what's the plan here really? Aside from sticking together? There's no really hint as to what the traps can be, and which corner they will pop up around. Plus what if we get lost..." Kendra flushed at Darius's compliment, a faint pink hue dusting her cheeks. "You sure know how to set the mood," She says, her lightly condescending tone putting herself at ease. The last thing she needed was her own teammate screwing with her mind, no matter if it was intentionally or not. Clearing her throat, she turned towards Souten, the color fading as she began to think of the ways they could get through the maze. "We should probably take things slow. I would hate to threaten any points due to our speed, but it's much more important to get out of here in the best condition possible so we can face any other guilds without debilitations. Other than that, we should probably find a way to keep track of where we are heading, but I imagine it wouldn't be as easy as leaving a magical trail or finding some conveniently placed stones lying around," She says, glancing around at her guildmates for ideas. Victorian, master of doing things without first explaining, tugged off his shirt and began walking to the nearest torch. He tugged at the bottom hem until a thread came loose and pulled a bit so it unraveled. After tying the string to the sconce and making sure it was secure, he turned back to his teammates saying, "It is kind of simple. If we get lost we just retrace our steps following this. It'll be like that one story except there's nothing that will kill us... hopefully." Sachiel had stood there listening to everyone talk up to this point. "Souten I may like to wander, but I am focused now, you won't have to worry about that." He turned toward Victorian and said, "Theseus and the Minotaur is what you are referring too. Such imagination you lot had in the past." he chuckled for a moment but became serious again. "To look out for possible traps we should send out water doubles ahead of us so we don't accidently trip them." Sachiel said, before a water copy of himself split off from him like a cell and took the lead of the group, waiting to walk down the hallway. A wooden dart shot out of the hall and lacerated Sachiel's double within an instant. Souten jumped at the sound and was relived to see that it was only a clone, not any of his comrades. "They aren't pulling punches are they..." he mumbled to himself. "I like the string Vic." He said, trying to avoid looking at his boyfriend's bare chest. "We can assume that there are darts on both sides so..." Souten's focus was completely destroyed by the sight of Victorian shirtless. Gods he wanted to kiss the other man so badly, but this was not the place nor the time. Sachiel snapped in Souten's ear. "Focus." is all he said. "If you guys can, make water or ice double. be sparing with magic but give it enough weight to trip the traps. We can get through this unscathed, at least from what we have seen so far." he told the group as he made a second double out of ice. As Victorian made his water double, he nudge his boyfriend's shoulder and whispered, "Concentrate, love. We want to get out of here with as few injuries as possible and I'm afraid if anyone is distracted, they'll get hurt. If it helps, look at the path ahead of us and not at me." Then picking up his voice, he suggested, "Can we freeze over the walls thick enough that these darts can't break through? That way if they can fire more than once, we won't get skewered." "Hmm could be a good idea. That could cause the pressure to build up inside the wall though, so any weakness in the ice would be exploited and crack under the pressure. Talk about super speed darts!" Darius said as he made his finger imitate a dart flying through the air. "Maybe we could try a walking barrier? Ice and bone for durability, and water to help slow the arrows down and absorb any toxin that might be on them?" "I like that idea. We need to hurry. We don't want to be the last team out of here." Sachiel suggested as he looked at his teammates. "So who wants to have what role in our barrier?" Souten fell back into his concentrated demeanor at the words of Sachiel and Victorian. "I can use my shield rings and cover one side, Darius can cover the other and, the rest of you can slow down the arrows with water and ice! We can make it through the hall, then hopefully we'll get a break before the next challenge." In a flash of gray light, two rings depicting epoch shields on it. "Let's do this." He said with a grin. Kendra nodded along to the plan, standing next to Souten so that she was closer to the wall and raising her hands, taking a deep breath in so she could focus solely on the task ahead. "The set-up is going to be really strange, but we've got to keep it balanced, so Sachiel will be in the center, with Darius and Souten flanking him and Vic and I on the outermost level. I assume we are all on board when I say it should go water barrier, ice barrier, then the ring and bone barrier as the last resort. Vic and I will start with our barrier, then Sachiel will add his, and then Souten and Darius will be the last. Try to minimize the space between the barriers as much as possible and make them as durable yet thin as possible to keep our magic reserves high," She says, nodding to each of her teammates. "Sound good?" She asks, beginning to draw the moisture from the air so she could create the barrier. "Sounds good to me!" Darius says with a smile as he gets into his position. He begins concentrating his magic into his palms as he readies for his time to make the last part of the barrier. He has no doubts in his teammates abilities and is sure that they will be able to make it through a simple trap such as this. He just hopes nothing surprising will happen... Souten nodded and stood, his shoulder touching Sachiel's. He channeled a small amount of inner ethernano into the shield rings, and gradually, small magic circles grew until they reached a massive proportion, protecting Souten's whole body. "I'm ready." He could maintain those rings for a long time if he needed, so why not prepare them now, It would be better to be safe then sorry. Sachiel didn't say a word, and made his own layer of protection around the group. A 6-inch thick wall of ice spread along the water, giving the barrier around them a sturdier build as Sachiel raised his hand. "Here we go. What about the floor though? Use the doubles for that?" Sachiel suggested. "Why would we worry about the floor?" Vic said while threading his shirt. "The darts come out of the wall, I don't think they'd pull much more than that for a first trap." After he had gathered a considerable fistful of string, Victorian took his place, setting up a protective layer of water through his hydrokinesis. "So. Kendra, I assume we're going to take it literally one step at a time?" "I'm assuming so, but let's take big steps here! I am sure the other teams are far ahead of us by now." Darius said with vigor. He wanted to conserve his magic as much as possible in case bigger problems arose. Kendra nodded to Darius, making sure the barrier stood soundly before she began trekking forward, setting a brisk pace, though she made sure the group stayed a few steps behind the doubles. She watched their movements intently, tuning out the sounds of the darts hitting the edge of their barriers as they walked, dropping softly behind them. When a small click reverberated throughout the room, she stopped, watching as one of their dummies plummetted into somewhere unknown. "Well, Vic, while your optimism was appreciated, it seems that the creators of the maze didn't really care for giving people the easy way out," She says, making two doubles out of water from the barrier and sending it forward. After a moment, one double went to the tile three to the left of Kendra, while the other one was standing slightly to the right of Souten. They then began to go along each of the tiles that covered the ground to the right of them to a certain point and then went up to the next set and repeated the process. They traveled faster than the group had been before, so they were able to keep their pace roughly consistent with the one they had set beforehand "Alright, I don't want to risk any of us falling, so this is probably our best bet. Please instruct your doubles to do the same so that we can make sure that none of us steps on a trap." The group went along with the plan, protecting themselves with a barrier of water, ice, and bones while carefully walking down the hallway, following the safe path the team's doubles found for them. "At this rate we should be past the first test in no time." Sachiel said quietly as he thought of what the other teams had to face. In a few moments the group came to a set of five doorways, each leading off to a separate room. Above each doorway their was the name of each of the five crashing wave members. "Looks like the next part of the maze is a solo test. I wonder what they have in store for us?" Sachiel said to everyone. Souten smiled, decided to go first. "I'll see all of you on the other side!" He entered his door and turned back once, staring straight at Victorian. It seemed like an unspoken conversation between the paid but after a moment the ring wizard closed his door. It was dull in the room. The walls and floor were a dark gray, giving the man no clues to what his challenge may be. As he neared the center he saw a feminine form, sitting in a chair with their legs crossed. "Uh... Hello? Souten called out." The form rose and shadows fell away to reveal his own mother. "I'm disappointed in you. So disappointed..." She spoke. Her blue eyes were heavy and bloodshot. Wrinkles covered her skin, seeming to drip off of her bones. "Mom. I just saw you last week? What are you doing here." His body moved of its own accord, sending Souten's trembling body backward. "Disappointed. You're never going to be like your father. Never were strong enough." Souten choked on his own words. "No Mom. I am strong like Dad. Just in different ways." "No." She said, reaching for a bottle that wasn't there. "You didn't even get into the Greencloaks. How would you become the Southern Ranger?" Her eyes bore into Souten's and he realized that he didn't have an answer. "I'm a guild member now. I'm plenty strong enough. I told you I'm here with my friends." He reached out to touch her but his hand went through her. It was an illusion. Souten had dealt with illusions before. He needed to beat them, but how could he beat his own mother? He had to break it. Now that he had discovered that it was an illusion, it would be easier to deal with. "Go home Mom." He said sternly. "I am a perfectly fine wizard. Go home." Cracks started to form in the illusion as it tried to keep its hold over Souten. "Go. I am not afraid." Under those words, the illusion crumbled and a door appeared on the other side. He sighed and opened the door, nearly collapsing on the other side. It was so draining for him to face her again. Even when he met with her in her home, she was so insufferable. It drove him insane. Souten supposed all he could do was rest and wait for his comrades to appear. Darius entered his door next after waving to his comrades, "Be strong my friends!" His room was that of his childhood home. The oak smell overwhelmed him, reminding him of times when he would spend all day with his father assisting with his carpentry work in the back room of their house in Bosco. He was a bit in shock with being transported to his childhood home, one of which he was cast out of by the townspeople, yet he still sent whatever money he managed to make back to this same home to help support his family. He was skeptic of if this transportation was real or not, yet when he rounded the corner he saw his parents standing before him in their kitchen with proud smiles on their face. Darius was caught off guard by their appearance, but was overjoyed to see the two people he loved most once again. "Mom... Dad... I've missed yo--" He began to say when he suddenly saw a sharp, white spear pierce through their hearts; the crimson liquid contrasting sharply with the object that took away that which Darius loved most. "NOOOOOO!!!" He screamed out in agony, dropping to the floor from the weakness that overcame him with the sudden flow of emotion. The spear pulled out of their chests and their lifeless bodies dropped to the floor. Darius stared at the cold faces covered in blood that laid before him. His body was shaking but he managed to cast his eyes upwards to see the thing responsible for the event before him. He was stunned into silence. It was himself that stood with an evil smirk on his face; bones extending from his palms that were covered in the drying blood. Darius was overcome with grief seeing his body tainted by such evil, one that he feared he would become during his time in the dark guild. Darius knew that this wasn't possible, that it was just an illusion, as he was looking at a reflection of someone he fear he could become. Darius struggled to stand up, emotionally exhausted from the sight of his parents before him, but stood before himself with a hand extended forward. "You are a man I could have become. I know you still live deep inside me, but I have the strength to overcome you now. The power of the bonds I now hold in my guild have given me the light to overcome such darkness. You will not control me." His deadpan tone echoed the seriousness in his heart as he shot a bone dagger straight through the illusions head, causing the false world to disappear around him. He looked to see that the room he was in was just a stone corridor with a door at both ends. He moved forward and exited the hell he just endured to see Souten looking just as tired as him. He puts his hands on his knees to steady himself and gives a head nod to Souten with a sympathetic smile. "Glad you made it man." Sachiel watched as Souten and Darius disappeared beyond the now closed doors. "Well, I guess I'll go next? Good luck you two. See you on the other side." Sachiel said as he walked through his door. Instantly he was plunged into darkness, falling through the air. "What the?" Sachiel said as he tried to release his Angelic form to fly. He pressed his palms together, trying with all his might. He looked around and felt around his chest, noticing that his clothes were now ripped to shreds and his chest was burned and stinging. "Ow." Sachiel said as he continued to fall in the dark. Is this what I think it? Sachiel asked himself. rushing towards Sachiel was a faint red light that grew stronger and stronger as the seconds went by, slowly illuminating the area around him as he flew by. Sachiel started to feel weak as his worst fear was starting to unfold. He suddenly flew through the area emitting the bright red light. revealing what looked like an enormous cavern with lakes of fire as far as the eye can see. The sound of screaming could be heard as Sachiel was rapidly approaching the ground below him. With a large thud Sachiel hit the ground in a crumbled heap. He weakly tried to move but couldn't stand, and resorted to holding himself on his hands and knees. "How is this possible?" he said aloud. He looked around and noticed someone approaching. "It's hard to move at first, but stay calm, give yourself time to adjust." a familiar voice said. Sachiel strained to look up to see the familiar face of Seraphina staring at him with a calm smile. "Welcome my love, welcome to my new domain." she said sweetly. Sachiel finally realized what was going on. "This is an illusion, isn't it?" Sachiel said as reached out his hand to grab Seraphina's. His hand went straight through her without any sensation at all. "Yeah..." Sachiel took a breath and forced himself up, causing the world around him to grow a bit dimmer. "Yeah. I have to go" Sachiel said sadly as he looked toward Seraphina. "I can't stay here. My friends need me." He turned and started to walk away. Seraphina's face twisted from a calm smile to a twisted, malicious grin. "You should be here with me, rotting away as Father has made me to do!" She screamed as chains of Hellfire emerged from her wrists. She swung them towards Sachiel, wrapping him in the Hellfire. Sachiel screamed at first, but took a second to breathe and looked around for anything out of the normal to break the illusion. Through the pain he looked at Seraphina who was slowly trying to pull him back towards her. "You aren't real." He said through gritted teeth. He looked at her and noticed that her eyes were a different color, being all black instead of grey. "Your eyes are wrong. I could never forget your eyes." Sachiel said aloud. The room began to shake even more as it started to fade out to reveal the maze room. The last thing to disappear was Seraphina and her chains. "Help me..." she said softly as she fell to her knees, weeping. Sachiel walked up to her and held her in his arms. "I don't want to stay here." she said before she faded away, revealing a cracked Lacrima below her. Sachiel turned towards the now open door, opposite of where he entered and walked out. He sighed as he saw his teammates, and leaned against the wall of the maze, letting his back slide down it to rest. Victorian took a deep breath, gave a nod to Kendra for good luck, and stepped through his own door. He did not expect to see Souten on the other side though and would have gone to make sure he passed into the correct door if there had been one when he turned around. It was just him and his boyfriend and he had to admit he was confused. The confusion grew to horror when golden locks topped with a blazing red bow slid into view behind the other male and a girl with a gun twice the size of her body held the weapon to Souten's back. "Hiya there Vicky! I see you got yourself a pretty, new boy toy and I hope you wouldn't mind sharing. I mean just look at this face!" Corrine squealed. Her free hand came around to lightly caress her captive's cheek and slid down to his collarbone. This looked all to familiar, like the day the boy had first met, but this time it was Victorian's own sister harassing his love. Souten's eye blew wide. "Tori..." He whispered, the small sound echoing in the empty room. Vic moved to take a step forward, but Corrine stopped him with a motion to the gun digging into the boy's spine. That stopped him dead in his tracks. The chill seeping through his bones had little to do with the room's temperature and a Hell of a lot to do with the fact that his sister was known for her merciless tactics. "Now, now Vicky, we have a deal for you. You can keep your little boyfriend by your side, in tact and come home where Dad awaits. Or you can watch as I blow a hole through his stomach right here." She giggled. He didn't know how she had gotten in here nor how she had found him, but there was no way he could give in to what she demanded. Souten would despise him if he knew. Corrine read the hesitation in his eyes and shrugged, "Oh well, suit yourself." The gunshots pierced the room with loud cracks and Souten dropped to the ground like a sack of flour, red already staining his front. A half deranged scream ripped from Victorian's throat as he lunged forward, attacking his sister with tears pooling in his eyes. It didn't register that this was all an illusion when she disappeared, only when he fell to his knees and tried to desperately grab his smiling, bleeding boyfriend's hand. "You're not real..." He stated quietly. The illusion broke and his heart was on the same path as he bolted for the end of the hall to the other door, yanking it open to see his beloved on the other side, sitting against the wall. Victorian dropped to wrap Souten in a fierce hug, crushing him almost as he breathed out a variation of 'you're alive, oh my god you're alive' a few times He only pulled back to cup the other's face in his hands and frantically search his eyes to make sure he was real and unharmed. The blue eyed boy planted a delicate kiss on the brunette's cheek as the tears stopped. Kendra took a deep breath in, opening the door that waited ahead of her and stepping through. As soon as the door shut behind her, her vision went dark for a moment, before it returned again. She felt water lapping at her ankles, and she looked ahead to see she was facing the shore. She quickly stepped out of the water, looking along the beach to see if she could identify where she was. After a moment, she realized it wasn't the mainland, and in fact, the island she grew up on. She recognized that it was an illusion right then though there was still the matter of getting out of it. She continued along the beach, looking for any significant landmarks that may be hiding the Illusion Lacrima. After walking around for what felt like fifteen minutes, she deduced it was not any of her favorite places to visit, which left only one thing; Amphitrite. Sighing, she walked farther towards the center of the island, knowing that she would find the pleasant cavern she had come to know as home for the majority of her life. When she got there, she saw her mother in her human form, her long blue hair cascading down her back as smoothly as water as she worked on something Kendra couldn't see. She was kneeling down, crafting something that rested on the ground. The scent of fresh water emanated from the older woman, and Kendra relaxed at such a familiar smell. "Hello mother," Kendra said, keeping her tone neutral. This was not her mother, that she knew, but if she wanted to get out of the spell, she needed to find out how it ticked. The older woman stood up and turned around, her brow furrowed in concentration, though when she saw Kendra, it loosened, a smile replacing it. The thing she was working on appeared to be a set of arrows, three of them lined up as the finished product and another in the process of being made, and six others only vaguely reminiscent of an arrow. "It's so nice to see you dear. How has the outside world been treating you?" She asks, straightening out her clothes and then folding her hands behind her back. Kendra makes no comment, studying over the woman in front of her. Everything seemed in order, she had the calm smile with underlying calculation and cunning, if one stared deep enough into her coral irises. "I'm doing fine. Better than fine, truthfully. I joined a guild named Crashing Wave. We are currently participating in this year's Grand Magic Games. I would like to return to them so that we can move on to the next phase, so I apologize for cutting our reunion short, but please explain to me what you are here for so I can leave," She demands, eliciting an eyebrow quirk from Amphitrite. "Your dedication is surprising. When you were younger I had to break your fingers just to get you awake sometimes," She says, cocking her hip out as she folded her arms over her chest. Kendra stared back, waiting for the moment the illusion slipped. "I sometimes wondered if I would ever get the hang of your training. You were so harsh all the time. I'm glad you stuck with me so I could become who I am today," She says, her cool blue gaze matching Amphitrite's fiery one. "I'm just glad you're gone now. You were practically dead weight until you actually got upset with me. And then you attacked me, which was much more than I anticipated. How did it feel, to hit the woman who had rescued you and gave you strength where you had none before?" She asks, and Kendra shakes her head. "I did what I believed was right, and I refuse to feel sorry for such actions. You can not guilt trip me into sympathizing with a torturer who had ripped me from my parents before I got a chance to properly appreciate and love them. You are not the savior you claim to be, you are simply the woman who thought that I was the best receiver of her divine magic. And I am, you and I both know this. So, what am I here for? I don't want to keep my teammates waiting forever," She states and the older woman's smile turning smug. "You are so impatient. Have I not taught you to wait for the moment your opposition crumbles beneath your everlasting power, just as water does to the rock? If that lesson didn't catch, you won't be leaving here," Says Amphitrite, and Kendra smirks. "I haven't forgotten your words. In fact, what do you think I've been doing this whole time? Catching up with a hologram that pretends to be my former caretaker? I'm afraid not. I have found your weakness, and where the lacrima hides," Kendra says, stepping up to her mother. "It's in your hands. Amphitrite does not hide them, she is always open as if begging others to come forward. You first held them together behind your back, and now you are tucking them beneath our arms. Show them to me," She demands, and the woman complies, holding them out in front of her. Kendra gathers water in her hands than grabs hers, watching as she began to fade away, revealing a stone. She crushed it in her grip, then watched as the remainder of the illusion slipped away, revealing a door at the end of the room. She walked over to it, her features blank as she went through the threshold. She saw her teammates in various forms of disarray and anguish, and she took a quick breath in, slowly exhaling it, and then allowing a smile to cover her features. "I'm glad to see you have all managed to get out before me. I can't really imagine what pain you went through, but for now, we need to leave. I spent far too long in there, and we need to prove the might of Crashing Wave and get out of here first, right guys?" She asks, her once forced smile turning relaxed and warm when she realized that her team was doing okay. Sachiel sat listening to Kendra's small motivational speech. "She is right everyone." he said as he stood up and stretched. "We have to keep in mind it was all fake, no matter how real it seemed. We need to move forward. We can feel sorry for ourselves later." He finished. He watched as the rest of the team was ready to go. "So what's next?" he asked, looking towards the open corridor. Souten felt his heart beat fast. He wanted to know. Why had Victorian said he was alive? Had.. Had he been in his boyfriends fear? The brown-haired stood, shaking off his fears. "Lets go. We don't want to be last do we?" He started to walk and turned a corner into another room. Suddenly everything was dark, he couldn't see, he couldn't smell. "Guys. Is it jus-" An A-flat note filled the air as Souten crossed a wire. "That's funny." His hand reached out, putting pressure on the wire and in an instant, Souten felt an electric shock run through his body. Souten let out a yelp in pain, and jumped backward. The pain from the current of electricity seemed to travel through the nerves of all the members of Crashing Wave, as they bent over in pain. Once the pain had subsided, Darius stood still as he feared to make any move. "What the hell man! I didn't touch anything and I still got shocked!" Kendra followed into the room, and as soon as her vision went dark, she reached out, trying to stop him. However, he had moved a little too fast, and she was unable to pull him back in time. When she heard the soft chime of a piano, she sighed in relief, though once Souten yelped she was back on full alert, feeling a shock run through her body as well. "Don't take a single step forward," She told the rest of her team, and she walked up behind Souten. She grabbed his arm, then pulled him back with the rest of the group. "Patience is the way of the water. Please try to keep that in mind when you represent Crashing Wave," She stated, before releasing her grip and sighing loudly. "Alright, please don't move," She requests, and after a moment, her body fades, turning into water vapor. She spread out as far as possible, identifying where each of the wires were, slowly making a path through them in her mind. She then collected the majority of her vapor body at the front and went along the chosen path, making sure it would get her the whole way through before reforming on the other side of the wires. She noticed her vision had come back when she got there, though not completely, and she imagined it would once she moved fully out of this room. She looked at her teammates across the maze, going through ways she could get them through. After a few seconds, she decided on her plan. "Alright, I'm going to make barrier around you guys and it's going to guide you through the maze. Get in a single file line, and then extend your arms outwards about halfway. You're all roughly the same size so you'll be fine," She shouts, hoping her voice would carry over to them and they would do as she asked. "You will have precisely 105 seconds to go through the maze before my guidance ends though I doubt it will take more than 75 so long as you keep a strong pace. I'll be shouting various instructions, so keep your ears peeled, as you will need to duck and step over things every so often. The barrier is going to be open in the front, however, the back will be closed off, so watch yourself," She finishes, preparing for a stressful and anxiety-ridden situation. She took a deep breath in, slowly exhaling it to calm her nerves. Admittedly, this method was going to use way more magic than she wanted to give up during their first trial, though between all four of her teammates, she could probably gain it back with little loss from them. "Ready when you are Sugar Lips! I'd rather not get shocked again, so I hope you memorized whatever is in front of us!" Darius says, his muscles beginning to cramp from not moving for so long. Kendra made a face at the nickname, thankful that Darius couldn't see it, as he most likely wouldn't like it. What was with him anyway? The famous saying'' 'give them an inch and they will go a mile' came to mind, and Kendra wondered exactly what he got out of pursuing her so persistently. Chalking it up to being just about the only woman who'd ever given him the time of day, she pushed the thoughts away for later revision. "Here we go, start walking as soon as you feel the barrier." She said, raising her hands and channeling her magic energy towards the four men. She created a rectangle around them, leaving the front portion open as she said she would, allowing it to touch their fingertips. Once they began moving forward, she worked a few steps ahead of them to ensure they wouldn't be tripped up. Statements such as, "Step when I call your position in line," "duck according to previous instructions," and "turn left" or "turn right." Forty-five seconds had passed and they had made it through two-fifths of the maze, however, Kendra didn't say anything to them about the distance they still had to cover. They had found their rhythm by this point, and telling them to hurry up would only make them lose it again. Besides, she had no doubt they could and would pull this off. Sixty-five seconds, three-fifths. Eighty seconds, four-fifths. Ninety-five seconds and they had made it the whole way through. She breathed a sigh of relief. The barrier dropped and Kendra glanced among them. "All good, right?" She asks, knowing she might not have noticed they had hit a wire in her concentration. As the group had been walking through the sense-less wire maze, Sachiel was half concentrating on Kendra's directions, the other half within his own mind. ''So is that what my real fear is? I wonder what's next in this trial. Are the spectators able to see our fears as we went through the challenge, or do they just show us entering a room? If that's the case most of them would guess that I fear Hell... This could be interesting once we get out. He refocused on Kendra as they exited the wire maze and their sight slowly came back. "I'm alright, I think." Sachiel said as he looked himself over. He gave Kendra a thumbs up after his inspection. "You did well Kendra. Thank you for the help." Sachiel said gratefully. "Yeah, that was definitely some impressive directing." Darius says with a smile. The group gathers themselves again as they continue to transverse through the maze. As they turn a corner they hear a hissing noise of sorts; the kind of sound you hear when you puncture a tire and it begins to leak. They see that this noise is coming from a whitish tinted smoke like gas coming from a vent on the wall. The hissing stops and the smoke morphs into some sort of human like creature with long talons. It lets off a piercing screech as it body pulsates and grows bigger with every second. Kendra nodded, a relieved smile on her face. "That's good," She says, before starting to travel through the maze again. Once they get into the next phase, Kendra looks at the ghastly beast, sucking in a deep breath. Calm, calm, calm, She repeats in her head, like a mantra until she feels just that. She raises her hands in front of her, quickly constructing a water membrane around them. It was thin, barely there at all and crystal clear, allowing them to see everything outside. The beast slowly stopped building its mass, though it was no less threatening by any means. "Can one of you do this instead? The barrier was more than I bargained for," She said, looking among her teammates. "This thing is... Its magic signature is mixed in with ours. I don't know how, but it has somehow gotten traces of it and added it to its own, so this is all I've got at the moment to make sure it doesn't do that. Don't slack off on the barrier and make sure it keeps everything locked in," She says. Victorian created a slightly larger layer than Kendra and signaled to Souten to create a smaller one. The two men were in sync, creating a double-layered water bubble to let air in, but not let the carbon dioxide escape. "It's like a membrane." said Souten. "We're letting air in, but not letting the carbon escape. We've got to move quick." The pair continued holding up their barrier while walking along to the other side of the room. The beast managed to pop Victorian's water bubble a few times, but luckily due to Souten's second layer, the beast never grew larger and they were able to escape into the next hall. After wandering around more, using Victorian's string as a guide to so that they never retraced their steps unless needed the team appeared at another hallway. The air in the hall was shimmery and when Victorian looked up he noticed spikes. "There's spikes at the top." He stated. The man then requipped one of his old shotgun shells and threw it into the room. The shell began to float up quickly until it slammed into the ceiling amount the spikes. "Hmm, so some lighter gravity...How are we going to go about this?" Darius says as he notes the construction of the room. It had a small entry way that was like that of a doorway on both ends, and the spikes could be seen disappearing about 50 feet down the hallway. "What if we were to temporarily seal off the entry and exit, and then fill the hallway with water? If we each have some sort of counter weight system, or buoyant force to counteract the gravity, we would be able to suspend ourselves in the water and swim our way to the other side. It's just like when you go scuba diving; you use weights and air to help suspend you at a point in space in the water. Then once we reach the other end we can undo the seal on the door, increase our weight so we don't float up, and then use our strength to exit the room?" Kendra nodded to the plan, carefully thinking over ways they could bring the idea about. She glanced among her teammates, making note of their various abilities and where they could best be used. "Well, how about Vic, Souten, and I handle filling up the room while you and Sachiel build the weights with ice and bone? I think that would make most out of what we each have to offer though I could be wrong," She suggests, looking back towards the next room. "Or we could all contribute to filling up the room, and then try and divide making the weights between us. Some of us conjure up water, others freeze it, and we do it that way," She adds. "Making the extra weight won't be too difficult. I think Darius and I could work on that while you guys fill the room." Sachiel said as he started to spray ice into shells at first, waiting for the bones from Darius. "As we travel through the water we can always add more ice and bones if needed to stay where we want to." Sachiel said to himself as he thought of how big the weights needed to be. "Better to start heavy, then drop some weight if needed." Darius said as he began morphing small bracelets of extremely dense bone that people will be able to slip on to keep themselves down. He had to spend a bit more magic then he would have liked to overcome the porous nature of bone, that way it wouldn't float and would serve only as a weight. Kendra nodded to Sachiel, then looking to Vic and Souten. "I'll keep everything in the room, and you two work on filling it," She said, waiting a moment for objections, and when the pair nodded, they all stepped up to the edge of the maze. Kendra gathered some water, placing it at the far end of the room allowing it to cover from one side to the next. The two boys then began filling up the room with water, forcing it towards the opposite wall. Several minutes later and the entire room was filled with water, carefully contained by Kendra. "Sorry about making you guys do all the heavy work," She said, before turning towards Darius and Sachiel. She slipped on a few of the weights, then motioned towards the water. "After you," She says, waiting until all four of the men passed through the water and then following after them. The plan seemed to go quite well actually, and while it was relatively difficult to swim with the weights and altered gravity, they made it through without consequence. Kendra loosened the water wall so they could pass through easier, and once they were all out, she pushed her hand through the water, allowing it to be absorbed and replenish her reserves. After five seconds, she pulled her hand back out and turned back to her teammates. "Let's go," She said, venturing forth again through the maze. The room they entered was one of a far greater size than any one they had seen before. With the entrance sealed off behind them, and no visible exit in sight, they took in their surroundings. Above them was a ceiling that seemed to be cast with some sort of spell to give the illusion of the milky way galaxy gleaming overhead. Among the false stars was large stone like sculptures of the planets. Each one was connected to a metal arm that joined in the center mechanism; one that slowly spun the eight planets around a stone sun. At the bottom of this mechanism was a pedestal that was inscribed with the following riddle. Called a star in both morning and night, I will give you the key without putting up a fight. I may be a bit backwards, but I am still the hottest. Though im really second fiddle, if im being honest. I am lovely, beautiful, and bright. Yet I have no group as satellite. My 'sister' is the one who is truly adored, As she is the one people flock toward. A body like mine should not be so ignored. and so what lies inside me will be your reward. my modest description has given you clues. So to escape this labryinth you must now choose. Sachiel read the inscription on the pedestal, thinking A star morning and night, the hottest but is second fiddle. No satellites... '' He looked at the planets and suddenly realized. "Venus!" He said aloud before turning into his angelic form allowing him to fly. "We need to look inside Venus!" he said as he floated up to the planet in question and tried to twist it each way to see how it gives, trying to pull it off the metal arm. Suddenly, the room around them vanished, and the team appeared in Domus Flau, near the Dragon Gunfire team which appeared a few moments before them. "And the underdogs made it through! Give them a hand you all! Crashing Wave made it through the first challenge!" A commentator called out and the crowd cheered and clapped in response. Souten himself practically fell to his knees. It had been exhausting, harder than he had expected. "We did it..." He managed to choke out between heavy breaths. Sachiel was still floating in the air, blinking his eyes from the instant light change. "Oh we did it?" he said as he floated back down to the ground and changed back to his human form. He high-five'd and hugged his team mates. "That's one down, we can do this!" He said with a laugh. He was happy his guild mates were successful, as well as excited for the next challenge. ''This is a good feeling. Haven't felt it in a while. he thought to himself.Still, why was my illusion what it was? He shook his head to rid himself of the thought and turned back to celebration.